Yes, it's a strange thing to do — just sit there and do basically nothing. Yet the simple act of stopping, says Pema Chödrön, is the best way to cultivate our good qualities. Here are five ways meditation makes us better people. The mind is very wild. The human experience is full of unpredictability and paradox, joys and sorrows, successes and failures. We can’t escape any [...]
Pema Chödrön & k.d. lang talk Buddhism, creativity, and “gapaciousness”
The beloved Buddhist teacher and famed singer joined Sounds True founder Tami Simon for a lively and insightful conversation about meditation, learning from hard times, and what it means to get “gapacious.” The evening was a benefit for the Pema Chödrön Foundation and Tools for Peace. Tami Simon: Pema, you’re turning seventy-nine in July. I’d love to hear about the things [...]
Waking Up to Your World
Throughout your day you can pause, take a break from your usual thoughts, and wake up to the magic and vastness of the world around you. Pema Chödrön says this easy and spacious type of mindfulness practice is the most important thing we can do with our lives. One of my favorite subjects of contemplation is this question: “Since death is certain, but the time of death is [...]
Cultivating Openness When Things Fall Apart
Pema Chodron and bell hooks talk about facing life's challenges, in this 1997 conversation from the Lion's Roar archives. Initially when I enter the classroom, I share with my students that we are there to think critically—to engage the world we live in—the world of ideas, fully, deeply, with our whole heart. Pema Chödrön's work gives me this gift. Consistently she [...]
Two Practices for Times of Tragedy
Tibetan Buddhist teacher Pema Chödrön and Zen teacher Bernie Glassman both teach three-step meditations that can help foster wisdom in times of tragedy. When tragedy strikes, we can feel like the ground has dropped out from under our feet. The Buddhist view, though, is that these experiences offer an opportunity to directly experience wisdom and compassion — exactly what [...]
Facing Yourself
You are a warrior when you have the bravery to face who you are, without fear, embarassment, or denial. This warriorship is the basis of the spiritual path, says Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Through the practice of sitting meditation, the warrior discovers basic goodness. Introduction by Pema Chödrön. Introduction by Pema Chödrön For me, contemplating the teachings of Chögyam [...]
Transforming the Heart of Suffering
In order to have compassion for others, we have to have compassion for ourselves. In particular, to care about other people who are fearful, angry, jealous, overpowered by addictions of all kinds, arrogant, proud, miserly, selfish, mean—you name it—to have compassion and to care for these people, means not to run from the pain of finding these things in ourselves. In fact, [...]
How We Get Hooked and How We Get Unhooked
Pema Chödrön on shenpa, or the urge, the hook, that triggers our habitual tendency to close down. We get hooked in that moment of tightening when we reach for relief. To get unhooked, we begin by recognizing that moment of unease and learn to relax in that moment. You're trying to make a point with a coworker or your partner. At one moment her face is open and she's [...]
Making the Warrior Commitment
We've all got the potential to awaken and help others in meaningful ways, big and small. Pema Chödrön shows us how we can let go of self-centered worries and become a bodhisattva-warrior. It's the greatest happiness of all. Compassion is threatening to the ego. We might think of it as something warm and soothing, but actually it’s very raw. When we set out to support other [...]
Six Kinds of Loneliness
To be without a reference point is the ultimate loneliness. It is also called enlightenment. In the middle way, there is no reference point. The mind with no reference point does not resolve itself, does not fixate or grasp. How could we possibly have no reference point? To have no reference point would be to change a deep-seated habitual response to the world: wanting to [...]
